TV/radio notebook: NFL audience a Week 1 record

Updated 9:54 pm, Thursday, September 15, 2011

Chances are about one in three you watched an NFL game last Sunday. The league said an opening-week record 107.4 million fans tuned in during Week 1, which explains why ESPN agreed to shell out a few more billion dollars to retain Monday Night Football and why the rest of the networks will no doubt follow suit.

NFL games were the most-watched prime-time programs in each of Nielsen's 25 local people-meter markets for the week ending Sept. 11 except for Atlanta, where South Carolina-Georgia was No. 1, and Detroit, where Notre Dame-Michigan topped the charts.

In Houston, the Colts-Texans opener recorded a 24.4 Nielsen rating and 46 share and had a total viewing audience of 810,000 as the most-watched show of the week.

"I would anticipate that Houston will have a pretty big game, period," Fouts said. "If you look at what happened to the Dolphins on Monday night when they gave up 1 gazillion yards, I think that Houston is licking their chops.

"(Miami's defense) will be challenged even more so than against the Patriots because of the powerful running attack of Houston. Houston ran the ball 37 times against the Colts. In this day and age in the NFL, that amount of rushes is unheard of. It also means that you're probably going to win the game."

The late start is bad news for Cowboys fans. With the Texans in the late-afternoon window, KRIV (Channel 26) will go with Bears-Saints at noon for its only game on a CBS doubleheader weekend. Accordingly, that means Cowboys-49ers at 3:05 p.m. will not air in Houston.

But hey, at least you get to see a re-air of Manchester United-Chelsea in the first game of Fox's Premiere League soccer series.

College updates

CBS has fulfilled Gary Danielson's case of bus envy by providing him and Verne Lundquist with their own SEC on CBS Cruiser, which will set up shop at each SEC game beginning with Saturday's Tennessee-Florida matchup.

Danielson will host a show for CBSSports.com called 5th Quarter with Gary Danielson after each game with contributions from Lundquist, Tracy Wolfson and Tony Barnhart Actually, it sounds like a good way for the announcers to wile away their time until the stadium traffic clears and they can drive to the airport. … ESPN's College GameDay bus, meanwhile, will be parked at Tallahassee, Fla., site of the Oklahoma-Florida State game Saturday night on ABC. ...

Idaho-Texas A&M will be available on pay-per-view Saturday on Comcast channel 944, DirecTV channel 786 and Dish Network channel 463. Elsewhere, check your provider for channel locations. Suggested retail is $39.95. … We'll expand on the topic in a Four DVRs Plus blog post, but the upshot Thursday from Justin Connolly, ESPN's senior vice president for national accounts, is that ESPN remains "cautiously optimistic" about more carriage for the Longhorn Network but as yet has nothing to report. Of particular interest is that ESPN is not attempting to wedge LHN into its global agreements with multiple system operators but is treating it as more of a one-off deal for each carrier. ...

After being a no-show last week, I can now report that I can receive NFL Network RedZone in HD at Comcast channel 714. It should be available to all subscribers to Comcast's sports and entertainment package. RedZone SD is at channel 130.

Four DVRs, no waiting

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel returns at 9 p.m. Tuesday on HBO with segments on college bowl revenue, Fox and NFL Network reporter Jay Glazer, and the post-NFL, post-incarceration life of Houston native Dexter Manley …

It is considerably depressing to turn on the latest episode of NFL Films Presents and not hear and see Steve Sabol, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, in the host's chair. But at least the show is now called Steve Sabol's NFL Films Presents, so his presence continues. And hopefully he will be back on duty soon in sound as well as in body; he was at work Thursday at a film screening.